We like to think and talk about strange and excluded things: from ghosts and UFOs to forgotten history and strange beliefs. See below for more details.
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Thursday, 24 November 2011

On 21 October a report came in of a wallaby was found decapitated at Brent Lodge Animal Park in Hanwell, west London. "I’m completely sickened by this attack on a defenceless animal and I know the whole community will be equally shocked" said local counciller councillor Bassam Mahfouz.

Then two more wallabies were 'murdered', a Ealing Gazette's tag, on 15 November. Tragically they were two of three wallabies brought in to keep the widowed wallaby Rolph company after October's attack.

"One animal was found with its throat cut while all that remained of the other were limbs scattered across the park, it is believed" writes the Daily Mail today, no doubt shaking it's head at modern society and wondering what Liz Jones will have to say about all this. Is one of her exes a wallaby slasher? On the October attack the mail reported "A member of staff at the centre said at the time that Bruce's head hadn't been found, but was too upset to say if it could have been taken as a sick trophy."Wallabies can be a bit of a target. The Centre for Zoology investigated a wallaby murder in Loftus in 2002 and the Centre for Fortean Zoology makes mention of a Wallaby Slasher of Newquay being an early UnConvention topic (though not one I can remember).

Are there people out there attacking wallabies? And if so why can't they pick on someome their own size? Kangaroos are available.

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

The myth of Noah's ark is well-known and the flood is investigated by archaeologists of the Near East. Now there is an idea of what such an ark might have actually been like.

British Museum curator and scholar, Dr Irving Finkel informs us on some ground-breaking discoveries in ancient Near Eastern studies.

Dr Irving Finkel works on the cutting edge of ancient scholarship, is Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian (i.e. Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian) script, languages and cultures, in the Middle East Department of the British Museum.

The evening will begin with the Fortmanteau; our monthly summary of strange news stories.

The Evening Standard took a break from writing about rich people going to parties, the children of rich people going to parties and how much of a tool they think Ken Livingston is to publicise the book London's Curse: Murder, Black Magic and Tutankhamun in the 1920s West End. The book, and article, suggest that Aleister Crowley, on his way to inventing Thelema, was so annoyed at Egyptologists disturing Tutankhamun's tomb that he set about murdering six men in some sort of Hammer horror style revenge. These murders were then blamed on the supernatural curse of Tutankhamun when it was really just Crowley throwing people off balconies.

The research is described as a "unique analysis [our emphasis] of Crowley's diaries, essays and books and inquest reports" which appears to come to the conclusion of "Crowley, 'wickedist man in the world, what what. Drug taking bugger, and, Egyptian stuff, erm, Jack the Ripper sells well is somewhow involved somewhere. Must be a seriel muderer."

So, should the London Fortean Society invite author Mark Beynon in to give a talk?